Johnston: Our soldiers are not robots

Wednesday

Jun 25, 2014 at 1:22 AM

By James C. Johnston Jr.Local Columnist

Our soldiers are not robots. They are our kids. They are our flesh and blood, and they are not pawns to be moved into harm's way just to satisfy the geopolitical ambitions of politicians. Their precious lives are not to be wasted in stupid wars that have no real meaning. President Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a horrible waste of both life and treasure. To waste any more young lives now because some idiotic religious zealots cannot get along is stupid.These ill-considered wars contributed to the near ruin of our economy and sapped resources that should have been used to rebuild America. President Obama ended our war in Iraq. He is about to end our involvement in the war in Afghanistan. He orchestrated the killing of Osama bin Laden. Obama also kept us out of Syria, the Ukraine, Libya, and many other areas where the likes of Republican Sen. John McCain would have sent us had he been running the national show. I hope now that a light will dawn, and instead of sending 600 advisers into Iraq to silence his critics, I hope that President Obama would just order all of our people out of Iraq altogether. We really have no dog in this fight.Why is the political right often so willing to send our kids to fight in marginal wars in which our national interest is not served? Is it because their kids will not be in danger? Back in the days of the American Civil War, rank and file Union soldiers coined a phrase about that war that gained a lot of traction in the years to come, because it was true. They called their war, "A rich man's battle and a poor man's war." Later variations of this idiom include the more familiar, "It's a rich man's war and a poor man's fight."As usual the children and members of America's elite "One Percent" got out of actually fighting. Under the provisions of the Conscription Act of 1863 [Draft Act], a man could pay a substitute to fight for him if he were drafted. Andrew Carnegie, who was well on his way to great wealth, paid an Irish lad $850 to go and fight in his place. John Pierpont Morgan spent $300 for a substitute for himself, as did hundreds of other wealthy men.For Morgan it was one of many great investments at the time. He spent $3.50 each for 5,000 rifles and sold them to the Union Army for $22.50 each! I believe that he became the poster boy for war profiteering. But then he was a member of the swaggering class of "Robber Barons" after all. J. P. Morgan's rifles had a small problem. They were defective and ripped the thumb off many young soldiers who cocked back the poorly designed hammers.The father of James Mellon, of the famed banking Mellon family, said when buying his son out of the Army, "There are plenty of lives less valuable that can go in his place." This was the general attitude of America's elite "One Percent" back then just as it is now.Generally speaking, not many rich kids go to war these days. They have careers and "better options," as Dick Cheney put it as he bowed out of service in Vietnam a century later. I find it funny that former Vice President Cheney is so hot for war in Iraq today when he ducked the draft five times in the 1960s. Back in the days of Vietnam only one member of Congress' sons went off to war, and that lad was former Democratic Vice President Al Gore whose father was a U.S. senator. You might remember that the man I am speaking of was that same Al Gore who won the popular vote for president in 2000, but that victory was awarded to George W. Bush by the actions of the conservative, Republican-dominated Supreme Court. Bush was always hot for war but sat out Vietnam in the Texas Air National Guard and Harvard Business School.Now the prime minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki, wants us to come back and save his bacon in the face of a backlash to his rule. Maliki originally wanted all U.S. troops out of his country. Now he wants us back to prop up his regime.When this mess started over a decade ago, I wrote that someday we would get out of Iraq and that the place would explode in civil revolt. I suggested that Iraq be partitioned into Sunnistan, Shiastan, and Kurdistan. I further said that we should stay out of Iraq and let the chips fall where they may. A short while later, Vice President Biden said the same thing that I had written..These Middle East governments today are mostly inflexible theocracies for which not one young American life should ever be sacrificed.James C. Johnston of Franklin writes for the Daily News on alternate Wednesdays.